WINDLOADS ON NET COVERED STRUCTURES

Agricultural plastic nets are popular materials for constructing crop protecting structures against natural or biological hazards such as hail, wind, or insects and birds.
However existing design standards do not provide a methodology for the calculation of wind loads on structures with permeable cladding.
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations provide a cheap and easy to use alternative to full-scale or wind tunnel experiments for analysing the wind generated pressure distribution around net-covered structures.
In these simulations the permeable cladding is treated as a porous material.
In this way, aerodynamic force coefficients are numerically estimated for structures covered with nets of various air permeability characteristics.
In the present paper the aerodynamic coefficients of three typical designs used for supporting agricultural nets for various applications have been numerically calculated.
In particular the following structures have been studied: a) duo-pitch anti-hail canopy roof, b) vaulted roof anti-insect house, and c) flat roof shading house.
The numerical results were compared against the provisions of the Eurocode-1-1-4 for the corresponding impermeable structures.

International Symposium on High Technology for Greenhouse System Management: Greensys2007

A. Mistriotis, D. Briassoulis

nets, permeable coverings, windloads, CFD, aerodynamic coefficients

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2008.801.114